Defenders of Wildlife - Friends of the Earth - National Environmental Trust – National

Wildlife Federation - Natural Resources Defense Council – Public Citizen - Sierra Club
– The Ocean Conservancy - US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)

2003 ENERGY BILL

(updated November 17, 2003, 8 am)

Summary of provisions that are harmful to public health and the environment, public lands and coastal
areas, consumers and taxpayers, and energy and national security.

Public Health

§ Allows more smog pollution for longer than the current Clean Air Act authorizes. Under the
existing Act, areas that have unhealthy air are required to reduce ozone-forming smog pollution by
strict statutory deadlines. If these areas fail to meet these deadlines, they are given more time to
clean up, but must adopt more rigorous air pollution control measures. The bill allows polluted
areas to have more time to clean-up but without having to implement stronger air pollution
controls. Title XIV Sec. 1443 p. 43.

§ Delays air pollution clean up in southwestern Michigan for two years while the EPA conducts a
study. Title IX, Section 970.

§ Dramatically increases air pollution and global warming with huge new incentives for burning coal,
oil and gas. Titles III, IV, VIII.

§ Claims to promote “clean coal” but inhibits its deployment by disqualifying federally-funded clean
coal projects as “best available control technologies” that must be adopted by other coal-powered
industrial facilities. Title IV Sec. 402(f) p. 7 and Title XXXI.

§ Threatens drinking water sources by exempting from Safe Drinking Water Act regulation the
underground injection of chemicals during oil and gas development. Title III Sec. 327 p. 54-55.

§ Lets polluters off the hook for contaminating groundwater with the gasoline additive MTBE and
other fuel additives. Nullifies lawsuits by cities, states and others filed on or after September 5,
2003 seeking compensation for contamination of groundwater by MTBE, a probably human
carcinogen. Title XV Sec. 1502 p. 21.

§ Requires taxpayers, rather than polluters, to pay up to $2 billion to clean up leaking underground
storage tanks containing gasoline and other toxic chemicals even at sites where viable
responsible parties are identifiable. Title XV, Subtitle B.

§ Encourages the mixture of hazardous wastes in cement and concrete products as an alternative to
safe disposal in permitted hazardous waste landfills. Benefits one Oklahoma mine in particular.
Title I Sec. 110 p. 26, Title XIV Sec. 1445 p. 48.

§ Fails to include standards for providing clean, renewable energy sources that would save
consumers money on their utility bills, benefit farmers, create jobs, spur economic development,
and reduce air pollution and global warming emissions. Title XII.

§ Allows electric utilities to escape emission reduction obligations by purchasing emissions "credits"
from mobile sources such as cars and trucks, even though this type of "cross-sector" trading
scheme has proved unworkable in several states where it has been tried. Title VII Sec. 752 p. 43

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§ Fails to do anything to address global warming.

§ Provides millions in taxpayer funds to uranium companies for polluting mining practices that
threaten drinking water aquifers. The provision contains a red herring exclusion for New Mexico;
one company with operations in New Mexico and other states could receive bail out money for
mines in other states, freeing up company dollars for proposed mines in Navajo communities in
New Mexico that would threaten the sole source of drinking water for 15,000 Native
Americans.Title VI Section 631.

Public Lands and Coastal Areas

§ Exempts all oil and gas construction activities, including roads, drill pads, pipeline corridors, refineries,
compressor stations, etc., from having to obtain a permit controlling polluted stormwater runoff caused
by construction activities, as is currently required under the Clean Water Act. Title III Sec. 328 p. 55.

§ Allows the Interior Secretary via “Secretarial Order” to designate utility and pipeline corridors across
public lands without seeking public input through a land use planning process. Title III Sec. 350 p.83.

§ Establishes a new process for siting electricity transmission lines on federal lands implemented by the
Secretary of Energy, including components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, the
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and the National Park system (including National Monuments).
Title XII Sec. 1221 p. 20.

§ Allows applicants for federal drilling permits to take up to two years to comply with application
requirements, but requires the BLM only ten days to make decisions on drilling permit applications. Title
III Sec. 348 p. 79.

§ Establishes an “Office of Federal Project Coordination” within the White House intended to expedite the
permitting and completion of energy projects on federal lands, and overrides environmental safeguards.
Title III Sec. 341 p. 66.

§ Requires the United States Geological Survey to identify various “restrictions and impediments” to the
development of federal oil and gas deposits. These “restrictions and impediments” include policies and
regulations designed to protect fish and wildlife, wild lands, and cultural and historical values on the
public lands. Title III Sec. 345 p. 72.

§ Allows oil and gas lessees to be compensated from royalties for their costs of complying with the
National Environmental Policy Act. Title III Sec. 326 p. 52.

§ Establishes a perpetual “pilot program” for expediting the approval of energy projects in the Rocky
Mountain region. Title III Sec. 347 p. 75.

§ Lifts the 240,060-acre limitation on the amount of federal oil and gas acreage one entity can control,
encouraging monopolization of the use of federal oil and gas resources. Title III Sec. 323 p. 47.

§ Mandates the siting of a high voltage electricity transmission line through the Cleveland National Forest
and other public lands, overriding a decision by the State of California rejecting such siting. Title III Sec.
353 p. 96.

§ Encourages oil and gas development under Padres Island National Seashore, notwithstanding its status
as a National Park. Title III Sec. 354 p. 98.

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§ Waives existing National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental review and public participation
process for all types of energy development projects on Indian lands in favor of an unspecified new
process. Title V.

§ Creates sweeping new authority for the Department of Interior to permit new energy projects in the Outer
Continental Shelf (OCS) without adequate oversight or standards. Title III Section 321.

§ Weakens states’ ability under the Coastal Zone Management Act to have a say in projects and federal
activities that affect their coasts including limiting appeals related to pipeline construction or offshore
mineral development.. Title III Sec. 325 p. 50, Section 330 p. 57.

§ Circumvents and expedites the environmental review process for construction of "storage" facilities on
the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), oil, and other substances, and
construction and expansion of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals, both onshore or offshore. Title III
Section 320 p. 36, Section 329 p. 55.

§ Requires a report to Congress on recommendations for preventing future natural gas supply shortages,
including the identification of estimated natural gas supplies that are not available under existing Federal
policies, thus undermining existing moratoria on OCS areas and other sensitive public lands. Title XVI
Section 1601.

§ Creates incentives for expanded offshore oil and gas drilling. Under the terms of this provision, coastal
states utilizing congressional or presidential moratorium protections would be inelegible for revenues
from this section, while coastal states allowing more offshore drilling closer to their shorelines would be
rewarded. Title XIV Subtitle B, p. 6 Section 1411 and Section 1412.

§ Authorizes $500 million ($50 million for 10 years) for timber companies to remove trees in old growth
forests, including large fire-resistant trees important for forest health, and burn them for energy.

§ Bribes coastal states to accept coastal drilling through increased revenue sharing provisions, while
targeting the revenue towards further industrialization of the coastal zone instead of channeling
funding towards needed environmental mitigation of oil and gas impacts on coastal resources.
Title XIV, Section 1412, page 6.

§ Gives away taxpayer owned oil and gas to the petroleum industry in fragile Alaskan waters, through
royalty suspensions. Title III, Section 316, page 18.

§ Grants unprecedented streamlined jurisdiction to Department of Interior over all energy-related industrial
projects in US waters to the full extent of the 200 exclusive economic zone.

§ Continues to promote development of all OCS lands, including sensitive moratoria protected lands and
potentially national marine sanctuaries, through two ill defined “studies.” Title III,Section 352, page 94-
95, and Title XIV, Section 1601.

Consumers & Taxpayers

§ Gives tax breaks and subsidies to big energy companies. According to the Congressional Budget
Office, the bill’s price tag exceeds $50 billion over the next decade. These tax breaks and
subsidies would add $18 billion to the deficit.

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§ Tax breaks are even provided for technologies that will increase pollution. Some of the most
egregious subsidies include:
- creating a $2 billion program to assist and encourage companies to develop “ultra
deepwater and unconventional” gas reserves, including coalbed methane, an existing
profitable industry. Title IX, Subtitle E part II;
- mandating royalty exemptions for offshore wells deeper than 400 meters;
- allowing the Secretary of the Interior to reimburse oil and gas companies when they pay for
environmental review of their projects ;.
- creating a new first-ever $6 billion tax break for operating new nuclear reactors, Title XIII
- creating a new, first-ever $1.5 billion tax break for burning coal, Title XIII Sections 1351-
1353.

§ Allows the federal government to give private utilities the right to take private land by eminent
domain to site transmission lines if the state has not acted within one year. First-time-ever
sweeping federal preemption of state authority to site transmission lines, based on very vague
criteria, FOR EVERY STATE BUT TEXAS , which is specifically exempted from such preemption.
Title XII, Subtitle B (TX exemption Sec. 1221, subsection k p. 18).

§ Extends for 20 years the Price Anderson Act’s limits on liability for nuclear plant operators, which
would guarantee limited liability for the nuclear industry in case of a catastrophic accident. Title VI
Sections 601-609.

§ Repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act, the main law to protect consumers from market
manipulation, fraud, and abuse in the electricity sector even while evidence of corrupt industry
behavior is still front page news and ratepayers are owed billions to compensate for the industry's
illegal activities. Title XII Sec. 1263 p. 92.

§ Authorizes a $1.1 billion nuclear reactor in Idaho, with a potential exemption from normal Federal
project management rules, to demonstrate hydrogen production technologies that are not
projected to be economic. Title VI Sec. 651 p. 40.

§ Leaves landowners, ranchers and others affected by oil and gas development under their property
powerless to protect their land and water from irresponsible development activities.

§ Waives existing law and mandates expeditious oil and gas leasing throughout the National Petroleum
Reserve Alaska, and allows for waivers of all royalties due the taxpayers as a result of leasing of these
lands. Title III Sec. 317 p. 18

§ Spends $3.7 billion for polluting coal-based technologies, and add pork-barrel loan guarantees for
the first time in the 17-year history of program Title IV.

§ Reimburses industry for the cost of environmental analysis required under the National
Environmental Policy Act. Title III Sec. 326 p. 53.

§ Limits the Bureau of Land Management’s ability to receive fair market value for utility corridors
crossing public lands.

§ Appears to increase the burden of proof on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in cases
of investigations of market manipulation and/or reports to investors. The existing statutory
language forbids reports containing "false or misleading or knowingly inaccurate reports." The
new language replaces that phrasing with "knowingly false or knowingly misleading or knowingly
inaccurate reports." Title III Sec. 332 p 59.

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§ Discriminates against tribes, states, and the public in new appeals procedures for hydroelectric
relicensing proceedings by allowing only industry to initiate appeals. New “trial-type” procedures
let industry hold proceedings hostage for years.

Energy & National Security

§ Reverses a long-standing U.S. nuclear non-proliferation policy against reprocessing waste from
commercial nuclear reactors and against using plutonium to generate energy for commercial
use.Title IX, Section 926

§ Fails to take any step whatsoever to require that the nation reduce its dependence on oil or
improve the fuel economy of our cars, trucks and SUVs. Title VII

§ Extends the Dual-Fueled Vehicles loophole that allows automakers to get corporate average fuel
economy (CAFE) credit for producing vehicles that can run on gasoline or alternative fuels.
Because these vehicles currently run on alternative fuels less than 1 percent of the time according
to the Department of Transportation, extending this loophole would allow excess gasoline
consumption attributable to this program to reach as much as 155,000 barrels of oil daily by 2008.
Title VII Sec. 773 p. 61.

§ Makes it more difficult to update fuel economy standards by adding new requirements for
redundant studies to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's CAFE standards setting
process, thus creating new opportunities for litigation to prevent NHTSA from undertaking oil-
saving increases in automobile fuel efficiency standards. Title VII Sec. 772 p. 60.

§ Fails to include a provision to require the President to develop and implement a plan to reduce oil
consumption by at least one million barrels per day by 2013. Titles I, VII.

§ Fails to ensure deployment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by authorizing appropriations of $2.19
billion over the next five years with no accountability for achieving oil savings or pollution
reductions. There are no production and deployment requirements, or even goals, to ensure that a
meaningful number of hydrogen vehicles will be delivered to consumers. Title VIII Secs. 803 &
809 pp. 3 & 18.

§ Reverses 10-year policy of restricting the export of bomb-grade uranium for the benefit of one
company. Title VI Sec. 633 p. 20.